Glassmaking in east Cheshire: an early seventeenth-century glass furnace at Mobberley

In the glass industry, very high process temperatures are required in order to melt the raw materials. These temperature levels are usually achieved by burning natural gas with strongly pre-heated air. However, this creates ideal conditions for a strong formation of nitrous oxides (NOX), a pollutant whose emissions are strictly regulated. The industry is therefore very much interested in technologies to suppress the production of NOX within the furnace itself. One possible approach is the so-called flameless oxidation, a novel combustion regime which is characterized by very homogeneous temperature distributions and low NOX production. While this form of combustion is firmly established in the steel industry, the glass industry has been reluctant to change its production methods as the glass melt is very sensitive to changes in the furnace conditions. Gas- und Warme-Institut Essen e.V. (GWI), in cooperation with its partners, investigated how to best introduce flameless oxidation into glass melting furnaces. Using both simulation and experimental techniques, a GlasFLOX burner was developed and then examined with regards to its NOX reduction performance. In a second step, the retrofitting of an operating furnace was carried out, based on a strategy determined by extensive CFD simulations. After five years of operation, the operators of the retrofitted plant report unchanged product quality, while NOX emissions have been reduced by about 50 %.

The melting process in the glass industry is an energy-intensive process that uses fossil fuels to maintain melting temperatures between 1600°C and 1700°C. The process is carried out in the Glass Furnace. Obtained the high temperature also of flue gas is around 1350 °C – 1500 °C. Hence with the high temperature is potential to heat recovery in the form of combustion air pre-heating using a regenerator to increase the efficiency in Glass Furnace. This phenomenon gave rise to an idea to create a modelling mathematic to know the optimum process in Glass Furnace. Many studies on Glass furnace regenerator have been carried out but only for one cyclic of heat transfer in regenerator. Therefore, in this study, dynamic modeling of the regenerator will be made, namely a mathematical model that describes quantitatively the dynamic behavior during the process of reversing the direction between the regenerators, which will later explain the effect of air flow rate and the selection of the optimal transition time value for the demonstration, regenerator work and regenerator heat stability, by observing the dynamic behavior of the regenerator temperature profile using the FlexPDE software version 7. The simulation results show that the longer the switching time of regenerator is linier to inclining temperature in the regenerator with the optimum switching time (ST) at 10 minutes. The regenerator heat stability greatly influenced by air flow rate and heat propagation by heat transfer convection. However, the dimension selection of the regenerator plays a crucial role in heat utilization in glass furnaces.

ABSTRACTThe aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between the stringency of NOx regulation and environmental technological change in the EU and US glass industry. A time series of patents on NOx primary reduction measures, including oxy‐fuel technology drawn from the international patent class ‘glass melting furnaces’, serves as an indicator of technological change. A qualitative analysis based on patent data and face‐to‐face interviews with glass industry representatives revealed that NOx‐related patent registrations, particularly in Germany and the US, are closely associated with early national NOx regulations and to a more limited extent with international regulation. Quantitative analysis of patent citations as a measure of knowledge spillover between patents showed that the strong environmental knowledge of Germany and the US is not only widely used within these countries, and also in other countries where environmental regulation began at a later stage. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.

The paper considers two mega projects, which it is claimed will transform economic prospects in northern England, specifically in the North West of England. They are Atlantic Gateway, a mega project driven by the private sector, focused on ambitious plans for the redevelopment of brownfield sites; and High Speed Two (HS2), a mega infrastructure project, led by the UK Government. Reviewing and comparing the characteristics of both projects, the paper concludes that despite its private sector provenance, Atlantic Gateway may have more in common with a developmental or goal-orientated approach to strategic planning than High Speed Two, and be less exposed to the public sector financial risks often experienced in mega projects.

This chapter contains sections titled: Energy Balances of Furnaces Equipped with and Without Batch Preheating Systems Energy Saving Options for Glass Furnaces Different Cullet and Batch/Cullet Preheating Systems Applied in the Glass Industry Conclusions Acknowledgement

Three severe and very different storms developed across northern England on 1 July 2015 during a short‐lived hot spell. These events are analysed using a mixture of traditional data sources, as well as the improved UK radar capability and the public crowdsourcing of data, which itself could have a powerful role in future nowcasting. The first storm developed during early afternoon from an area of medium‐level instability, resulting in strong straight‐line winds and localised flash flooding in northeast England. The second storm was rooted to the boundary layer and, from analysis of social media reports, produced a 130km swathe of large hail. Subsequent radar analysis showed this storm to have acquired characteristics of a supercell. Despite the loss of daytime heating, further thunderstorms developed across northwest England later in the evening, albeit rooted to a layer above the boundary layer. However, these storms still produced large hail and frequent lightning, with radar analysis showing the development of a rare elevated supercell.

The contribution of middle- and long-range transport of tropospheric photochemical ozone to pollution at a rural site in North-West England

This presentation shows the advantages of re-melting post-consumer glass, but also the potential risks of using contaminated cullet in the raw material batch of glass furnaces (e.g. container glass furnaces). As an example of potential advantages: increasing the cullet % in the batch of an efficient end-port fired regenerative container glass furnace from 65 up to 75% decreased the specific energy consumption from 3.95 MJ/kg molten glass to 3.8 MJ/kg and reduced the direct CO2 emissions with 31 grams per kg glass. Additional, lower indirect CO2 emissions can be taken into account, since less primary raw materials have to be applied, saving fossil energy in raw material synthesis (e.g. synthetic soda production). Waste glass has to be sorted and prepared in dedicated cullet recycling (treatment) plants (CTP) to meet the strict quality standards often expressed in maximum mass fraction of ceramics, stones, china, metal (ferro & non-ferro) and color mismatches that can still be accepted. But, also the presence of organic components (fats, oils, sugar, food residues,..) has to be controlled to avoid production or glass color problems. Contamination of cullet may lead to: 1. Glass quality problems: inclusions or color changes; 2. Glass melting disturbances by foaming or limited heat transfer into melt; 3. Glass furnace lifetime, by drilling of melts of metals, present in the cullet. The most important problems today are related to the presence of glass ceramics in the post-consumer waste glass and the variable amount of different colors in the glass cullet or fluctuating contamination by organics. Even small pieces of china or glass ceramics in the cullet, with sizes less than 5 mm, may end as glass defects in glass products. Larger pieces of glass ceramics may even lead to severe interruptions in the gob formation process, due to problems with cutting of the gobs with high viscous inclusions. In modern cullet treatment plants most ferro- and non-ferro metals are rather effectively removed. Glass-ceramics are very difficult to distinguish from normal soda-lime-silica glass, because color and transparency can be almost the same. Specific techniques have to be applied to detect glass-ceramic pieces in the cullet based on X-Ray absorption, X-Ray fluorescence, Hyper-spectral Imaging or UV techniques. Such systems are recently applied in modern waste glass treatment plants in Europe, delivering recycling cullet to the glass industry. This paper will show the glass defects related to the presence of glass-ceramics and the typical compositions of these inclusions (often present as cord or big knots). Organic materials can pyrolize within the batch blanket to form carbon rich residues. Carbon or cokes can react with sulfates in the batch and will cause formation of sulfides. A high level of sulfides in the batch (instead of sulfate) will jeopardize the fining process, may cause changes in fining onset temperature, may cause foaming around the batch blanket, or may lead to chemically reduced glass or even amber cords. The process of radiant heat transmission in the melt will change with a variation of the oxidation state of the melt (redox state of batch & cullet). Examples of glass defects caused by metal contamination in the batch will be shown. The composition of the metal inclusions (glass defects) in the glass product may be very different from the composition of the original contamination, causing the defect. An example is metallic aluminum that leads to silicon inclusions in the glass. Nickel sulfide can be formed by pollution of the glass melt by stainless steel flakes. Liquid metals are very aggressive towards the refractory bottom materials of the tank. A droplet of molten lead for instance will drill a hole in the refractory layers: downward drilling. The presentation will show the relation between glass defects and their origin in contaminated cullet and the mechanism of defect formation or defect conversion.

The objectives of reducing and increasing pollutant emissions during the glass production process also apply to the glass industry, meaning that the accurate modeling of a glass furnace is of critical strategic value. In the available literature, several CFD studies have proposed various models with different levels of complexity. Two basic aspects are shared by the existing models, limiting their accuracy and their impact on furnace design: the combustion space is usually solved with reliance on simplified models (e.g., Flamelet and global kinetic mechanisms); and the glass tank is solved separately, using an iterative approach to couple two (or more) simulated domains. This work presents the development of an innovative CFD model to overcome these limitations and to perform accurate simulations of industrial glass furnaces. The reactive flow is solved using a reduced chemical kinetic mechanism and the EDC (eddy dissipation concept) turbulence–chemistry interaction model to properly reproduce the complex combustion development. The glass bath is solved as a laminar flow with the appropriate temperature-dependent glass properties. The two domains are simulated simultaneously and thermally coupled through an interface. This procedure allows for the more accurate calculation of the heat flow and the temperature distributions on the glass bath, accounting for their subsequent influence on the glass convective motions. The simulation of an existing glass furnace, along with selected comparisons with experimental data, are presented to demonstrate the validity of the proposed model. The developed model provides a contribution that allows us to advance the wider understanding of glass furnace dynamics.

Pleasure or pain? A profile of smokers in Northern England

The steady state and dynamic behaviour (heat transfer, temperatures, glass and gas flows) in glass furnaces and forehearths can be described accurately and reliably by Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) models [1] such as the TNO Glass Tank Model (GTM-X). Application of these detailed, but also slow models for direct on-line control or optimization of glass melting processes is not possible without strong model reduction. TNO, IPCOS and the Eindhoven University of Technology have developed a generic approach, the so-called Proper Orthogonal Decomposition (POD), which is able to reduce the complex CFD glass furnace simulation model to no more than approximately 50 equations, while maintaining the required accuracy and level of detail. Herewith, the computational speed of the reduced order model increases drastically even up to 10.000 times faster than real-time. By following this approach, the resulting reduced models have become so fast, that they can directly be applied in Model based Predictive Control (MPC). This paper describes the benefits of the so-called Rigorous Model based Predictive Control system (rMPC: an MPC based upon a fast, detailed, and accurate 3D CFD model). Also, the approach for setting-up such a controller is discussed and results are shown of an rMPC installed at a container glass furnace to control glass melt temperatures.

All over the world, there is an increasing drive to develop new technologies or concepts for industrial glass melting furnaces, with the main aim to increase the energy efficiency, tabilize production and reduce emissions. The application of new process sensors, improved furnace design, intelligent control strategy and waste gas heat recovery systems support the glass manufacturers to achieve ever increasing requirements concerning energy efficiency and emission limits. Glass industries are searching for breakthrough innovations (revolution), but introduction of such major changes in industry is hampered by large risks and investments. Therefore most companies prefer a stepwise improvement (evolution) based on existing concepts, such a regenerative glass furnaces. When different technologies are combined, it will even be possible, in specific cases, to avoid the use of flue gas scrubbers or DeNOx systems. An overview of requirements for industrial glass furnaces is given concerning melting characteristics and performance of the furnaces. A short overview of evolutionary and revolutionary developments in industrial glass melting processes will be presented. In this paper, an example of an optimized, regenerative end-port fired glass furnace concept, based on a combination of current (BAT) technologies, will be given in more detail. Basic innovative elements of such a furnace will be shown and its expected performance.

Young people’s very visible and public performances of drunkenness have become a matter of popular and political concern. English alcohol policy, frames this type of harmful alcohol consumption as a problem of individual behaviour, which is underpinned by conceptualisations of risk and rationality. Thus positioning the individual as a rational, risk adverse, decision maker. Consequently, interventions focus on risk factors and individual harm reduction models, despite there being little evidence to suggest that these type of interventions are effective. This thesis moves away from this focus by using a social practice theoretical framework, to explore the contemporary drinking practices of young people from socio-economically deprived areas and to reconceptualise risk in relation to these practices. This study draws on data from three mixed gender friendship groups of twenty-three young people from deprived communities in the North West of England during a 14-month period. This study focuses on the alcohol consumption of young people from deprived communities in northern England because they are the group whose drinking has frequently been the most problematised in English alcohol policy. In addition, people living in disadvantaged communities have been shown to suffer from more alcohol attributable harms than those living in more affluent communities. During the study period, data was collected from three to four in-depth group interviews with each group and from the social media content of each young person. The study draws on the theoretical frame of the three element model of social practice together with ‘doing gender’ and conceptualisations of Bourdieu’s capital, to undertake an empirical enquiry of alcohol consumption, that explores the unequal and varying performance(s) of the practice. This study illustrates how a specific material arrangement of alcohol, the corporeal, spaces, finance and mobile phones; combines and interconnects with social and symbolic meanings of social recognition, sociability, caring and group belonging and with competences relating to the consumption of alcohol and staying safe. By doing so, a recognizable practice-as-entity is identified, which is framed as a proper night out. The study re-conceptualises risk as routine, ordinary and normalised within young people’s intoxicated drinking practices. Thus, risk is viewed as being complex, multi-layered and fluid and knowledge about moderating and navigating hazards and uncertainties is part of the (un)conscious, embodied know-how of the practice.

The New Zealand flatworm, Artioposthia triangulata, and the Australian flatworm, Caenoplana alba, have become quite widespread in the British Isles since their introduction, probably in the early 1960s. They are considered as pest species since they eat earthworms and consequently may affect soil structure and fertility. The distribution of the two species has been recorded by two surveys: a Scottish survey between 1991 and 1993, and a national survey, MEGALAB WORMS, in March 1995. The latter was organized as part of National Science Week by BBC TV Tomorrow's World, The Daily Telegraph newspaper and the Office of Public Service and Science. Results of both surveys are presented as distribution maps of confirmed records. New Zealand flatworms are common and widespread in Northern Ireland and Central Scotland, and occur less commonly in other parts of Scotland, and in Northern England. There are a few scattered records from Southern England. The Scottish survey has resulted in retrospective distribution maps. Australian flatworms are widespread in South West England, and are found in several places in North West England. There are also records from South and North Wales, Northern Ireland and one from Southern Scotland. There were many false and negative reports. There are records of both species from the Republic of Ireland.

Real-world SARS CoV-2 testing in Northern England during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic